BLSays: It's December, which means...

It’s December, which means… Lots of Foolishness!

What do you think of when the calendar flips from November to December?

Q: Have they played the Army / Navy game yet? A: No, not yet, but probably soon. …

Q: Are those Hallmark Christmas Movies still the stereotype that millions so love and millions of others make fun of? A: Yep; they sure are on both counts. … Blondie has watched over thirty of’em in the past two weeks. Funny story… Blondie follows Hallmark actress Candace Cameron Bure on Instagram. Blondie saw a picture of Ms Bure and her daughter dressed, in Blondie’s opinion, “inappropriately”. She noted her opinion… and got zapped by Ms Bure. YIKES!

Blondie and I are now tied in “# times zapped on social media” with “once each”.

Q: Why doesn’t anyone protest the term “Black Friday”? A: I don’t know, I guess people who “protest” such things are too busy “protesting” the Eeeevil imbedded in Rudolph, The Red-nosed Reindeer and Macy’s Parade’s Underdog balloon.

Q: Who is playing in The Dollar General Bowl this year? A: Troy versus Buffalo on Dec 22 in Mobile Alabama. Has anyone ever waited anxiously for their acceptance letter “from Troy”? Is there a coed at Troy named “Helen”? Is there anyone under the age of 50 named “Helen”?

Moving right along…

That UNCCH “Black Athlete” Graduation Issue… ??? Huh, what UNC “Black Athlete Graduation Issue”? About a week or so ago a lengthy article appeared in The News & Observer about the alarmingly low graduation rate for “black athletes” at UNCCH. No, it was NOT written by “That Damn Dan” Kane or by anyone you’ve ever heard of. It was written by some UNC grad student.

I would give you his name but I can’t pull up or link you to the article because it is behind The N&O’s pay-wall. How can a newspaper have “a wall” but The United States’ can not have “a wall”?

You can google UNC Black Athlete Graduation Rate and maybe you can pull up the article. How does “a UNC graduate student” gets an article published in The N&O… not a LTTE but an actual article like he was a for-real journalist? Add that to my ever-growing pile of “I don’t know”.

Anyhow… it was a long article filled with numbers and %s and it appeared in The N&O so it must be “The Truth”, right? That’s a rhetorical question.

As I recall the UNC grad student is alarmed that the % of “black athletes” who actually graduate from UNCCH is alarmingly low when compared to other academic institutions. “Troy” was not mentioned as a comparative institution. The grad student / faux journalist thinks this is something that someone other than him should be concerned about. My quite unscientific study did not find that to be the case.

Before I lost my one copy of the article I shared it with seven UNCCH alumni of “my generation”. All seven of whom profess a genuine interest in UNCCH… at least for the Football and Men’s BB programs and a sorta interest in the Fate of Silent Sam.

To my surprise, not ONE of those seven seemed at all alarmed, surprised, or gave a damn re: The Alarmingly Low Black Athlete Graduation Rate at UNCCH.

Each of those seven are familiar with my landmark treatise on the Gladiator / Spectator Dichotomy in Big Time College Sports. I note in that treatise that the only tangent point in the relationship of the Gladiators and Spectators is when said gladiators are actually performing for said spectators.

Do alumni / fans at other Power 5 schools care about the graduation rates of black athletes at their institutions? Having restricted my survey to seven UNCCH alumni, I am not in a position to say how anyone else feels.

Maybe everyone in the UNCCH Family except those seven alumni ARE concerned, but I doubt it. Maybe the whole article is bogus. I doubt that but maybe. In this Post-TGU World that we live in, maybe the academic legitimacy of “black athletes” at UNCCH is simply a sore subject.

Kinda like “How can Dickie Baddour, Deborah Crowder and that other “most ethical” woman get their full pensions as primary co-conspirators in The Greatest Academic Scam in NCAA History?”

When there is no reasonable answer to a relatively simple question… shrug ones’ shoulders and mutter “I dunno”.

Chancellor Chihuahua feels compelled to “apologize about Slavery”; but NOT so concerned about the alarmingly low graduation rate of UNCCH ‘s black athletes?? There I go taking cheap shots at Carol Folt… AGAIN. I’ll get another nasty note from “JudgeBob”… sigh!

I suspect the article received much more attention among “hated rival fans” than it did with disinterested UNCCH alumni/fans.

I also shared the article with my friend Mary Willingham and with Dave Ridpath w/ The Drake Group. After several years with a literacy program in Arkansas, Mary is now back in South Chicago working for a literacy program serving black youth. “Helping black students learn to read” was all Mary Willingham ever wanted to do. For that she was run out of Chapel Hill… and yelled-at by Chancellor Chihuahua. The Drake Group is a group of academic administrators seeking reform in Big Time College Athletics.

Based on my personal experience with this recent N&O article, I’d say The Drake Group has their work cut out for them. Wouldn’t you?.

As of today, Mack Brown has NOT announced either Gene Chizek nor Kliff Kingsbury as Coordinators for Mack 2.0 Era at UNC. Nor was Mack ever going to hire either one.

… The Chizek / Kingsbury Rumor was never anything but Board Monkey BS. I try my best to shield you from that insipid crap but, alas, you believe it any way. Mine is a hopeless task but I just love saying “I told you so”.

Someone told me… that someone told them… that they heard that… a lot of UNC fans are upset about the rehiring of Mack Brown. NOT about “the alarmingly low graduation rate of UNC’s black athletes” but about rehiring Mack Brown.

Apparently those upset UNC fans wanted “another Larry Who from Hattiesburg”… or from Troy… or from Boone… or from wherever James Madison is.

Maybe they wanted “a black assistant from Georgia or Alabama”. That is what Maryland and Colorado wanted… and got.

Now Maryland has “a black AD who was fired from Georgia for being pulled over in Buckhead with panties in his lap” AND “a black Head Football Coach who was fired from New Mexico for going 2-20 and for assaulting one of his assistants”. To my knowledge, Mack Brown has no such issues on his resume.

Speaking of assaulting people, specifically women, girl friends, groupies, et al… I read that The NFL is still dealing with that issue. Despite hiring a bunch of “Make’em Stop Beating Up Women” executives in The NFL HQ… their reforms, memos, and workshops don’t seem to be all that effective in curtailing the problem. I’m SHOCKED… howabout you?

Speaking of dealing with the problem… have you heard the latest whizbang proposal for What To Do With Chapel Hill’s Most Notorious Homeless War Veteran… Silent Sam? After several months of deliberation and an extension of several extra weeks of deliberation… “Chihuahua” Folt and her Merry Band of Trustees are proposing…

Building a $5,300,000 building on-campus to house SSam… rather than put SSam back on his pedestal… and rather than any of dozens of other plans that make much more sense.

The $5.3M Silent Sam Mausoleum & Oyster Bar will also cost $800,000/year to “maintain”. Whatever THAT means.

NOTE: “Fred” says he could maintain it with “a Swifter and some Windex” for $125/week plus supplies.

Guess What? The mini-gang of obscenity-screaming anarchists don’t like Chihuahua & Her Trustees New Plan AT ALL. They weren’t going to like ANY plan of course; because they are obscenity-screaming anarchists who pretty much Hate Everything EXCEPT Media Attention which they LOVE. … LINK.

I’m going to go way out on a limb and bet… all those UNCCH alumni / fans who don’t care about alarmingly low black athletes graduation rates (or rehiring Mack Brown) also don’t “give a damn” about Silent Sam any more.

Maybe they care about a 100 year old campus landmark but they know “Chihuahua” and her Merry Band of Trustees will screw it up somehow because …

Maybe “they” could stick SSam in a corner of that spanking new $32,000,000 IPF? All of those black athletes, most of who won’t graduate, but who cares, could see it every day and be reminded how clever their university’s administrators are?